By Bob Plain in RIFuture.org
Homer Simpson, in his
infinite wisdom, once
famously declared alcohol “the cause of, and solution
to, all of life’s problems.” The same might be said of anonymous comments on
blogs: the potential solution to, but often instead the cause of, all of
digital journalism’s issues.
Both
alcohol and anonymous comments are superfluous to a healthy diet, but can add a
lot of texture and value to a meal or a post. Unfortunately, they also run the
gamut from delicious to destructive. I’m prone to indulge in them both until
their evils outweigh their benefits.
Such, I
think, has become the case with RI Future’s most prolific commenter who goes by
the moniker Right To Work. His contributions have long been mean-spirited,
misleading and uninformed, but yesterday when they became potentially libelous
he crossed a line that shouldn’t be tolerated – especially given how frequently
we needed to remind him that he had again run afoul of our house rules.
But
silencing someone, for whatever reason, is no small action. If you’re in the
business of disseminating information, like RI Future is, it deserves both
careful consideration as well as a diligent disclosure as to why.
First
off, I should remind everyone that no one has a First Amendment right to speak
wherever they wanted. If we did, I would sue the New York Times for not running
my stuff on its front page. RTW has plenty of places he can spew his hate, so
I’m not at all worried about violating his rights.
On the
contrary, it’s him violating the rights of others I’m worried about.
In his
incessant and constant attempts to smear the left on RI Future, he likened local
teachers’ unions officials to murderous mobsters. A statement not nearly as
libelous as it is ridiculous but not at all a risk worth given it meets both
thresholds.
I’ve
personally warned RTW on several occasions to attack ideas rather than people.
Like you’d expect of a four-year-old, he would counter that others were guilty
as well. (And here I was thinking that a component of conservative values was
personal responsibility. Guess not as far as RTW is concerned.)
Furthermore, the
Spokesman-Review in Tacoma, Wash. is being sued for defending the anonymity of
an equally ridiculous and potentially-libelous comment that appeared in their
comment section, reports NPR. It’s
worth noting that if RTW thinks I would protect his anonymity he is putting
more stock in my journalistic principles than he claims to in his comments.
That
alone is reason enough to delete his account. But, sadly, there are other
reasons.
RTW is
the definitive internet troll. He comes to RI Future for no other reason than
to besmirch our work and bemoan our ideas. Even the screen name he chose is a
none-too-tacit fuck you to our product’s politics. His comments are often
off-topic and off-color. They range from simple vitriol to misleading to
patently false to debate damaging.
Which
is too bad, because he seems to be one of the few conservatives willing to
frequent our comments section. Open debate is definitely a progressive value,
and I for one believe that the comments section of RI Future often boasts the
best and most nuanced political debate in the local marketplace of ideas.
Here’s
hoping RI Future’s comments section can begin to attract a more intellectually
honest foil (I’m looking at you, Jason Becker and Dawson Hodgson) and fewer
like RTW.
